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Important: New Setup Instructions for Publishing and Responding on Instagram

Khoros Alumni (Retired)

Facebook and Instagram are reevaluating the information they share with others and have begun making changes to help protect the privacy of their users. As part of this effort, they recently announced a switch to a new v2 API

Lithium has been working diligently to update our integrations and completely switch to the new required Instagram API. To migrate, you must complete the steps below as soon as possible. By completing these steps promptly, you ensure that your information will continue to flow through Lithium seamlessly. Waiting to complete these steps may result in your integrations failing to work as expected. If you have already completed these steps (including emailing Lithium support as directed in Step 4), no further action is required on your part.

1. Convert your Instagram account to a Business Account and link to your Facebook pages

Facebook and Instagram require you to have an Instagram Business Account that is connected to your Facebook page in order to have an Instagram integration in Lithium. Note that you can only connect one Instagram account to one Facebook page, and vice versa, so you must have as many Facebook pages as you have Instagram accounts. This is required for all Instagram accounts managed in Lithium.

Note: If your Instagram account is already a Business Account, you must revert it to a Personal Account before proceeding.  Reverting to a Personal Account will remove Insight data. Facebook recommends saving your current insight data before performing this step. If you need assistance reverting an Instagram handle to a personal account, contact support so we can walk you through the process.

More information about Facebook's current position on this can be found here.

Learn how to connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page.

During this process you will be prompted by Facebook to upgrade your Instagram account to a Business Account in order to properly link the two handles.

2. Add and verify all your Facebook and Instagram integrations to Lithium SMM

Facebook now requires that brands link their Facebook pages to Instagram accounts. This means that, for every Instagram account that you want to add to Lithium SMM, you must link it to a Facebook page. To link your pages, you must add your integrations in Lithium.

3. Reconnect all your Facebook accounts

 For Lithium to switch you to the new Instagram API, you must reconnect your Facebook account:

  1. Sign in to Lithium SMM.
  2. Go to Admin > Social Integrations.
  3. Click Edit next to the Facebook page you need to reconnect.
  4. Click Reconnect.
    Note: Make sure your pop-up blocker is OFF. If your pop-up blocker is on, the reconnect screen will keep spinning, and it will appear that nothing is happening.
  5. Add your Facebook credentials.

4. Toggle each Instagram integration off and then back on

You must toggle each Instagram integration off and then back on under Admin > Social Integrations. Be sure to disable the integration for about 10 seconds before turning it back on.

5. Contact Lithium Support to associate your Instagram account with your Facebook page in Lithium

Our Support Team will help you link your accounts. You can only map one Instagram account to one Facebook page. They cannot overlap. Fill out the following template and file a case through the portal after you have reconnected your Facebook account.

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Subject: Enable Instagram Publishing

To: support@lithium.com

Hello, Support Team!

Will you please connect the following Facebook and Instagram accounts?

Connection 1:

Facebook: [ Facebook Page Name 1 as seen in Admin > Social Integrations ]

Instagram: [ Instagram Account Name 1 as seen in Admin > Social Integrations ]

Connection 2:

Facebook: [ Facebook Page Name 2 as seen in Admin > Social Integrations ]

Instagram: [ Instagram Account Name 2 as seen in Admin > Social Integrations ]

--

Our Support Team will alert you when they’ve linked your accounts and migrated your integration to use the new Instagram v2 APIs. By completing these steps as soon as possible, you will ensure that your information will continue to flow through Lithium as expected. 

6 Comments
Contributor

Our Instagram is already a business account (#1) and already linked to our Facebook page (#2) - they've been that way since long before the API changes. These are both already connected to Lithium. Do we still need to reconnect our Facebook page per instruction #3?

 

Given how fickle Facebook has been about integrations, we're nervous about taking unnecessary steps that might endanger our Facebook authentication.

Contributor
We are asking about down time is there is any down time of the service ??
Khoros Alumni (Retired)

Hi @upworksocial,

 

The third step is still crucial. Reconnecting your Facebook account allows us to get the new permissions that Facebook requires for the Instagram integration. Without doing this, the new APIs will not work, and unfortunately, there’s no automatic transfer (so it will simply stop working once Instagram turns it off).

 

We understand your concern about the reconnect. We have not seen any instances where reconnecting existing Facebook apps have caused problems. Please make sure that you reconnect with the same Admin User who previously authenticated the Facebook integration. Support can help you determine the specific users associated with each integration if you are not sure who should reconnect.

 

Thanks,
Larissa Tater

SMM Publishing Product Management

Khoros Alumni (Retired)

Hi @Madel1,

 

There are no platform downtimes for this change. There may be a short gap bringing in content during the switch as we transfer API paths; however, you should not expect anything prolonged. It is not much different than having to reconnect your integrations in Lithium.

 

Thanks,
Larissa Tater

SMM Publishing Product Management

Guide

 Oh thank you, I will re-create the account in business. Can I ask you if there are any problems? Smiley Happy

Mentor

Hey everyone,

We recently had to re-authenticate our Facebook and Instagram personal tokens within Lithium.  For both accounts (FB and IG) we used the instructions from here: How can I force an Instagram integration to reconnect.

 

Re-authenticating our tokens was done on top of the new setup instructions for publishing & responding on Instagram.

 

Li-Support also told us we'd need to re-authenticate our personal tokens every 6-9 months. [It would be nice if Li-Support would send us a reminder;)]

 

Hope this helps someone else out,

Louis